Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10419
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Apparatus for amending metals by nitre (saltpetre)
Date
1689
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
Object type
Library reference
41066
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 290mm
width (print): 175mm
width (print): 175mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Both pictures on this plate are part of Johann Rudolf Glauber’s treatise on the ‘Continuation of Miraculum Mundi’. The upper image depicts ‘A Gift offered to all diligent Physicians ... The manner of concentrating and amending of Metals by Nitre’ (the distilling vessel is designed as ‘a Man ... made of Iron, having two noses on his head’). The lower picture shows the furnace used in ‘a Gift presented to rich Merchants’, again involving the use of nitre (saltpetre) in ‘the emendation of Metals’.
Plate facing p.189 in the book The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber, containing great variety of choice secrets in medicine and alchymy ... (English translation by Christopher Packe, London, 1689)
Glauber (ca.1604-1670), an alchemist, chemist and chemical engineer, made several improvements to chemical processes and equipment, including furnaces and devices used in distillation. He published over 40 books in his lifetime, the most significant of which were collated and translated into English by Christopher Packe (a follower of Robert Boyle) to form a posthumous ‘collected works’ edition.
Plate facing p.189 in the book The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber, containing great variety of choice secrets in medicine and alchymy ... (English translation by Christopher Packe, London, 1689)
Glauber (ca.1604-1670), an alchemist, chemist and chemical engineer, made several improvements to chemical processes and equipment, including furnaces and devices used in distillation. He published over 40 books in his lifetime, the most significant of which were collated and translated into English by Christopher Packe (a follower of Robert Boyle) to form a posthumous ‘collected works’ edition.
Associated place